


Through The Bars of a Rhyme

by moemachina



Category: Final Fantasy Tactics
Genre: Bad Romance, Drabble, F/M, Tom Waits
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2012-01-28
Updated: 2012-01-28
Packaged: 2017-10-30 06:14:16
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 324
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/328671
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/moemachina/pseuds/moemachina
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>Some girls get ballads. Ovelia got a blade.</p>
            </blockquote>





	Through The Bars of a Rhyme

**Author's Note:**

> Written in 2007 for halcyonjazz. With apologies to Wm. Shakespeare, Dire Straits, and Tom Waits.

****

**I. JULIET, THE DICE WAS LOADED FROM THE START**

Some girls get serenaded from jasmine-scented balconies. Ovelia got battle plans.

"If we move our forces south, we can cut off their supply train," Delita said, tracing his finger across a map.

Ovelia nodded, watching him. She still trembled slightly with an ague she had caught in the dungeons. Her eyes were dark and burning.

Delita did not look at her. He avoided her gaze like a campaign-hardened general turning away from the ashy remains. But still he brought his maps to her solar, and still he solemnly defended her tinsel crown.

Some girls get ballads. Ovelia got a blade. 

 

****

****

**II. BOTH ALIKE IN DIGNITY**

When Delita returned to their camp, Ovelia dropped from a tree.

Delita yelped as they both hit the ground in one solid thunk. They grappled briefly before Delita managed to subdue her. It was not a hard-won victory. Ovelia was giggling madly.

"This...is why you have to stay a-alert at all times," she gasped. "I c-could've been an assassin."

"Assassins will be attacking you, not me," he said. "Are these hysterics? Are you having...vapors?"

Ovelia pushed herself up. "No, I don't have those. I have something...happier, I think."

"You have leaves in your hair," Delita said severely. 

 

****

****

**III. ROMEO IS BLEEDING, BUT NOT SO AS YOU'D NOTICE**

"I don't know what you want from me," she whispers. 

"We just want you to be what you've always been," he says. He leans against the cell wall and crosses his arms. "We just want you to be a princess."

"I'm not...you said I wasn't..." She makes a noise, deep in her throat, like a wounded bird.

He shifts restlessly. "What would you be, Ovelia? There are worse things than being a princess."

"A puppet," she mutters.

Something hard and hot contracts within Delita, but his face does not change. "A puppet who can take back her strings, Ovelia."


End file.
